What? Another biography of pale white men in positions of power? What compels historians and political scientists to write repeatedly about men like John and John Quincy Adams? Nagel chronicled the Adams family not so long ago; Ferling wrote a splendid single-volume biography of the father; and McCullough’s entry in the list won the Pulitzer Prize.1 In the past few years, we’ve had new biographies of John Quincy Adams by Cooper, Edel, Traub, and Unger.2 Surely there is nothing more to say, and in our days of hand-writing guilt about the sins of the founding fathers, who would want to read more about them anyhow?
To be sure, Burstein and Isenberg are a formidable writing team with more than a dozen fine volumes to their individual and collective credit. They have invariably stimulated and impressed. In this book, they tackle a father and son who loved to write...